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Viinin Kuvailu
The Story
Feminine and seductive, due to the dominance of the Merlot, Château GAZIN's wines can be enjoyed after a few years in the bottle, but usually they are worth laying down for fifteen, twenty years or more. Their sumptuous generosity offers a wide aromatic range of red and black fruit which harmonizes with their intense crimson or garnet red colour. They typically offer hints of plum, chocolate, coffee or liquorice, with aromas of almonds, toast, tobacco and vanilla, and a minty freshness.
With maturity they develop a spicy nose, with a hint of truffles, notes of undergrowth, game, fur and leather
The harvests are carried out by hand, as each plot reaches perfect ripeness. The grapes undergo an initial sorting in the vineyard, carried out by the pickers.
Two further sorting stages take place in the vat room, before and after removal of the stalks, to optimize the quality of the fruit.
Alcoholic fermentation takes place in small concrete vats, separated by grape variety and plot, the juice and skins are then left to macerate for two to three weeks.
The free-run wine is then drawn off and kept separate from the wine obtained by pressing the residue ("marc"). The second fermentation, or malolactic fermentation, is then carried out, each grape variety being kept separate, either in barrels or vats, depending on the quality of the batches.The wines are then transferred to oak barrels (50% new barrels).
They mature for eighteen months, during which the wines are progressively blended during meticulous rackings approximately every three months.
The contact with the fine lees and the oak tannins gradually adds structure and complexity, enabling the production of wines that can be laid down and that will improve over time.he estate can produce up to 100,000 bottles.
A second wine, an AOP Pomerol, l'Hospitalet de Gazin, was created in 1986 so that Château GAZIN could be made with only the best grapes from each harvest.After being bottled and placed in wooden cases on the property, the wine is distributed all over the world by wine merchants in Bordeaux. 86% of Château GAZIN's production is sold to wine lovers outside of France.
Wine Information
With the vintage 2011, we return toward the more classic wines and we turn away from the exceptional vintages of the years 2005, 2009, and 2010. Nevertheless, the 2011 is not without its merit. Harvest were early. The merlots came in from September 5th to the 20th, and the Cabernet francs and Sauvignons came in on September 26th and 27th; we brought in a mature and heavy harvest with a yield of 43 hl per hectare.
74,000 bottles of Château Gazin 2011 and 47,000 bottles of the Hospitalet de Gazin second wine are composed of a blend of 90% merlot, 5% Cabernet franc and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon. A very careful selection allowed us to produce a very full-bodied wine that is rather meaty, tannic, raised for 15 months in new barrels (45%), with the rest in one wine barrels.
The alcohol level of this vintage is 13.45°. The wine’s appearance is dark, brilliant bordeaux. 2011 features strong tannic notes, with red and black berry aromas: sour cherry, blackberry and black currant, a slightly toasted smell, winy, peppery, with a hint of caramel. The taste is silky, rather full, with a nice lingering effect, and a clearly tannic finish that doesn’t overpower and will soften with age. You can enjoy this wine today, after an hour or two of decantation, but the wine will improve with another five years (2018). It should not be kept longer than fifteen years.
Vuosikerta 2011
The 2011 vintage is not easy to handle.
Smith Haut Lafitte not only makes great white and red wine from Bordeaux in Pessac Léognan, they are also at the cutting edge of technology. They were one of the first Bordeaux wine producers to begin using optical sorting, which came in handy with the difficult 2011 Bordeaux harvest. Fabien Teitgen, long-time general manager, joined us for a long detailed conversation about what happened at Smith Haut Lafitte for the 2011 Bordeaux vintage.
“In my opinion, 2011 is balanced with a low pH and a medium alcohol level. So for those who picked at the right time, their wines will be balanced, with good concentration and good freshness. This vintage is not so easy to handle. »
Château Cos d’Estournel, Saint-Estèphe, began its 2011 Bordeaux harvest on Monday, September 5.
Jean Guillaume Prats told us that 2011 set a modern record for an early start to their harvest at Château Cos d’Estournel. He added: “It was the second earliest harvest on record. To find an earlier date, we had to go back to 1893! » Although the precise date to begin picking was not set in stone, the original plan was not to begin their Bordeaux harvest on September 5. But due to a ferocious storm that swept through the region, the massive 2011 Bordeaux storm hit the northern Médoc, any hope of waiting has gone out the window. “We had initially planned to start around September 9, with the young vines. After the storm, we gave ourselves time over the weekend to assess the situation and make the appropriate decision: wait and see how it will evolve in the coming days depending on the weather. We are “lucky” that this vintage is extremely early. The damage in terms of phenolic maturity of the grapes should be very minor. If it was a later year, like 2008, 2009 or 2010, the effects would be much worse.
" said Prats
The day starts before sunrise
Château Haut Brion and Château La Mission Haut Brion began harvesting their young Merlot vines on August 29. It’s early for the First Growth domain. To give you an idea of when Haut Brion started picking its young Merlot vines in 2010, September 8. In this vintage, the harvest continued until October 9.
Between the two properties of Pessac Léognan, with red and white grapes to pick, they have a busy schedule. Harvesters begin their day working on the grapes for their Bordeaux white wine, often starting their day before sunrise.
Jean-Philippe Delmas explains why they harvest early in the morning: “The goal of picking white grapes early in the morning is to ensure that the fruit stays fresh. This helps the berries retain their unique, fresh flavors. This year, we picked our white grapes between 7 a.m. and noon. The reason is that at this time of the day, the skin is dry. There is nothing left of the dew of the night. »
Château Lafite Rothschild began harvesting Cabernet Sauvignon from their northernmost plots, located not far from Château Cos d’Estournel, on Friday September 2. 2011. This is one of the first harvests recorded for the property. You will read quotes from many Bordeaux wine producers that 2011 Bordeaux, for many châteaux, will be their earliest harvest on record since 1893! However, producers located in certain districts of Bordeaux have brought forward their harvest calendars even earlier than expected.
Due to the enormous deluge and rain in the northern Médoc, centered near the border of Pauillac, Saint-Estèphe, to avoid possible rot problems, many châteaux in this vicinity decided to start picking sooner than they had originally planned. The most notable property is the famous Premier Cru, Château Lafite Rothschild. It is possible that the storm, which dropped half an inch of massive rain in a twenty-minute period, caused flooding in Lafite Rothschild's cellars.
“With our 2011 harvest, we harvested earlier because the cultivation of the vines was earlier than usual, due to the very hot spring. But the ripening weather conditions in summer were cool and cool, so the wine is of a cooler style than a late vintage. The pleasant weather conditions at the end of August and September were very good for phenolic maturity.” Fabien Teitgen from Château Smith Haut Lafitte.
Bordeaux 2011 /The earliest harvest recorded since 1893
